In the current communication system environment a huge variety of devices on which to receive communication services are available to users. However, the devices differ greatly, including equipment such as laptops, netbooks, PCs, smart phones, Set-Top-Boxes (STBs), home gateways, gaming consoles, tablet devices, eReaders, digital photo frames, amongst many others.
Moreover, in the current communication system environment there is a great number of services available to users, and additionally a number of technical options to receive the same service as similar services are offered using a variety of different technologies.
As an example, even simple services such as the email service might be delivered using the Post Office Protocol (POP) or Internet Message Application Protocol (IMAP) together with Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). However, after the success of the World Wide Web, email service is also delivered widely as a web-based solution using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
Another example of a service that may be offered using a variety of different technologies is Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). An IPTV service may be realized either based on a IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) solution or may be realised in a non-IP Multimedia Subsystem based solution. It may implemented on top of different technologies which make use of a combination of various protocols.
Moreover, in the digital TV domain, Hybrid IPTV is emerging and there are Set Top Boxes (STBs) which support both traditional IPTV and WebTV using access to Internet.
The operators who provide communication services and high-level end-user services are interested in monitoring the Quality of Service (QoS) that the end-user is receiving. The operator can gauge the service delivery quality level based on the result of this monitoring.
However, it is a daunting task for operators to come up with quality of service monitoring solutions in the light of the array of devices and services available in the current communication system environment.
The quality of service monitoring solutions are generally directed to monitoring the quality of service provided by a particular service, and they are generally based on network probes that give information about the traffic at different points in the network.
The present invention seeks to obviate at least some of the disadvantages of the prior art and to provide a method of monitoring quality of service and a quality of service monitoring system.